DU colleges set to reopen, infrastructure woes loom large

With Delhi University's (DU) colleges all set to reopen, colleges are now pulling out all stops to accommodate the shift to the four-year undergraduate programme.

While several colleges have witnessed massive overadmissions in a few courses, colleges are now devising alternative options to accommodate the students in the classrooms.

"Zoology, English and History have seen maximum overadmissions this year. To manage that, we have decided to increase the number of sections for each course so that the quality of teaching does not suffer. The time-table has also been done in a manner that we will utilise the entire afternoon slot as well. Classes are conducted from 8:55 am to 4:10 pm and that entire spectrum of time will be optimally used," said Praduman Kumar, principal, Hindu College.

In several other colleges, makeshift, temporary arrangements are being made to seat the additional number of students. While it is not the first time that colleges have witnessed overadmissions, officials stated that the situation would get ironed out once colleges got used to the rhythm under FYUP.

"We are creating new sections and teachers will be taking on additional load but no student will be denied any academic excellence. We are making alternative arrangements wherein we will be conducting classes in bamboo rooms inside the college. But we will be able to sort the situation out because some of the courses have also seen under-admissions. So the situation will become smoother in the coming few weeks," said Geetesh Nirban, media coordinator, Kamala Nehru College.

However, it is not just infrastructure worries that have gripped colleges. Departments and professors are also grappling with the huge onslaught of interdisciplinarity that FYUP will bring in. While under the previous system, interdisciplinarity was restricted to just two extra subjects per course, teachers claimed that under the newly introduced model, it will increase the pressure by leaps and bounds.

"If there are overadmissions even in one course, it will affect several other departments. This is because earlier a subject such as psychology needed to be taught to just one or two other courses as an interdisciplinary subject. But now it will increase the pressure on teachers because it will need to be taught across all disciplines. This means they will end up taking 12-14 classes more, outside their own discipline especially in the first two years," said Kanika Khandelwal, media coordinator, Lady Shri Ram College.